Chapter 113 – "The Five Thousand Phase"
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Scene 1 – The Memory Harvest
The crew attempt to stir the Rootlings by implanting written memories, song fragments, and pre-root folktales into the soil and communal resting areas.
A few Rootlings stop to listen. But ultimately, they blink… smile… and walk back into comfort.
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Scene 2 – Reen's Rage
Reen slams her notebook shut.
Reen: "We're not fighting apathy. We're fighting seduction."
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Scene 3 – Seed in Silence
Seed sits beside Levi's tent, staring at the soft moss carpeting her hands.
Narration: "Loyalty doesn't whisper. It roots."
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Scene 4 – The Dilemma
Seed looks at Levi sleeping uneasily.
She places her hand over his—but doesn't squeeze it.
Seed: "Would I let the world burn just to hold your hand?"
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Scene 5 – The Crew Debates Morality
Matthew and Maiku argue.
Matthew: "We keep pushing."
Maiku: "And pushing into what? They want this."
Jakku: "No. They were made to want it."
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Scene 6 – The Frostbitten Stir
The frostbitten man wakes suddenly. He speaks—one word.
"Altar."
He scratches symbols into the dirt. A buried memory perhaps.
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Scene 7 – Seed Confesses
Seed to Levi: "I don't know who I am outside of comfort anymore. But I want to believe in something else."
Levi leans in—but pauses.
Levi: "You don't owe me belief."
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Scene 8 – The Root Body Watches
In the heart of the Tree Cathedral, the Root Body watches through fibers stitched into Seed's veins.
Root Body: "Love is another form of control. So I gave her love."
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Scene 9 – Rootling Festival
5,000 Rootlings gather for a "soft communion." The crew attends, observing. Everyone is glowing, blissful.
Jakku (whispers): "This is a funeral with laughter."
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Scene 10 – The Crack
Reen decodes the symbols scratched by the frostbitten man.
Reen: "He saw something. A flaw. A weakness in the neural code."
Possibly an altar where the original Root design faltered.
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Scene 11 – Levi's Collapse
Levi: "All this time… your feelings… weren't yours?"
Seed tries to speak. He shakes.
Levi: "Am I anyone's anymore?"
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Scene 12 – Acceptance
Levi walks barefoot to the Root Body.
Levi: "Make me forget. If love is a weapon, take it away from me."
The Root Body embraces him.
Root Body: "Then be the seed of the next world."
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Scene 13 – Seed Screams
Seed: "Don't you dare take him! Don't you dare—"
Root Body (calm): "You already gave him to me."
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Scene 14 – Nightfall Fracture
The crew gathers near their campfire. They speak little.
Maiku: "He was our flame."
Reen: "Now he's a wick."
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Scene 15 – Seed Alone
Seed wanders the edges of bloom fields. She stabs her hand with a thorn.
> Narrator: "To bleed means you still belong to your body."
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Scene 16 – A Secret Rootling
A Rootling boy secretly follows the crew. He whispers:
Rootling: "I remember… my sister's name."
A flicker of hope.
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Scene 17 – The Five Thousand Phase
The Root Body gathers the 5,000.
Root Body: "Comfort has enemies. Do you love your peace enough… to protect it?"
A slow indoctrination to turn them against the crew.
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Scene 18 – Seed Watches Levi Sleep
Levi now sleeps in the Root Body's grove. Calm. Peaceful. Comforted.
Seed curls beside a tree, eyes wide open.
Seed: "I gave him up. But I never let go."
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Scene 19 – Closing Image
The symbols scratched by the frostbitten man now glow faintly in Reen's notebook.
Narrator: "There is still a crack. And cracks let in light."
To Be Continued....
Narrator (Closing Monologue):
"They planted songs like seeds, hoping roots would reach backward. But memory, when dulled by comfort, becomes soil too smooth to grow anything wild."
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"Rage is louder when it knows it's losing. Reen sees now—it's not ignorance they face, but the beauty of forgetting."
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"She sits not in prayer, but in pause. Her loyalty no longer shouts. It simply stays."
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"A question formed between fingers: Is love still love when it threatens the world? Or is it just a softer kind of fire?"
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"They're not arguing tactics—they're arguing faith. Faith that people want to wake up."
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"One voice, frozen in time, speaks again. Altar.
Even snow remembers."
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"Comfort is a cradle. She's unsure if she ever climbed out. But she knows one thing: she wants to walk again."
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"It is not cruel. It is clever. It knows that control dressed as care is the most permanent kind."
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"They laughed. They sang.
But funerals, too, can wear flowers."
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"Buried beneath the algorithm—one crack.
Even the most sacred roots can rot if you find the right fault."
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"To lose yourself is one grief.
To find out you were never yours… is another."
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"He chose peace over personhood.
And the Root welcomed him like a parent welcomes a child ready to forget their own name."
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"Her scream was not denial—it was mourning.
Not of him. But of the part of her that still believed she could save him."
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"Around the fire, silence.
Even anger, now, feels indulgent."
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"Pain reminds her she is still flesh.
Still unsurrendered."
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"One voice breaks the script.
A name—a memory—a fracture."
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"The Root does not demand worship.
It only asks: Do you love peace enough to defend it?
And most, softly… do."
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"His peace is perfect.
Her grief is real.
They are now fluent in two different silences."
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"The crack glows faintly.
Because cracks, no matter how small, are not failures.
They are the first invitation of light."
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Narrator – Closing Words:
"This chapter did not end in war.
It ended in seduction, in softness, in surrender made beautiful.
But even as the world leans into forgetfulness,
even as love becomes a tool,
and grief a virus to be cured—
a crack remains.
And cracks remember how to bloom."
To Be Continued...